It sounds unlikely, but it’s a reality: it only takes one impossible or toxic person to make your life miserable. It can be a co-worker, your boss, a neighbor, a teammate or someone in your family or circle of friends/acquaintances.
Why is this the case?
An impossible person is someone who will make you doubt yourself. Over time, insidiously, this individual will eventually make you lose your self-esteem and self-confidence. And you know that self-esteem and self-confidence are what determine your way of being yourself and your ability to succeed in everything you do.
I think you’ll agree with me that we simply can’t have that. So how can prevent such a person from undermining us? Paul Chernyak and the folks at wikiHow have prepared a comprehensive article focusing on four specific angles of this problem: how to handle conflicts, how to accept the situation, and how to protect yourself.
How to handle conflicts
- Never get defensive
- Disassociate, defuse and detach
- Avoid arguments
- Realize you probably can’t have a reasonable conversation
- Ignore them
- Ask a thought-provoking question
- Take some time off
- Show confidence
- Change your strategy
- Check your body language
How to accept the situation
- Consider it may be a question of compatibility
- Avoid picking up negative traits
- Learn from this experience
- Get ready for emotional mood swings
- Focus on the positive
- Speak to someone
How to protect yourself
- Preserve your self-esteem
- Protect your privacy
- Be the opposite
- Don’t focus on them
- Know that you may be dealing with an emotional abuser
- Set boundaries
- Part ways
To learn how to go about each one of these tactics, take a look at wikiHow’s post.
SOURCE: wikiHow
